


Vessels

by JuliaHouston



Series: The Girl with the Flamingo Tattoo [2]
Category: Supernatural
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2020-10-21 09:15:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20691080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuliaHouston/pseuds/JuliaHouston
Summary: An old friend of Castiel's unexpectedly returns, and Michael's been making trouble.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sam/gifts).

> This is a sequel to The Girl with the Flamingo Tattoo and is dedicated to Sam!

**Vessels **

**THEN **(Read to “Back in Black”)

Kate O’Neill is a Seer and can thus see angels’ true form as well as demons and other supernatural creatures and the supernatural reality of people who have had such experiences. Dean, Sam, and Castiel save her from a plot by bad people. Moreover, Castiel makes it so that Seers will be safer in future. A grateful Kate leaves the boys to work on a Seers’ manual.

**NOW**

Dean Winchester woke up and knew something was wrong.

Of course, that was kind of like saying that Dean Winchester woke up and the sky was blue. It wasn’t that every single morning ever meant another danger to himself, his family, or mankind in general, but it was close enough that having his first thought upon gaining consciousness be, “What’s wrong?” was almost comforting.

He even had a routine. He checked the bed and then the room. Since he had slept in his jeans and t-shirt, he just had to shove his feet into his boots and grab his gun to be ready to check the hallway (clear), the kitchen (clear), the library (clear), and the war room (Castiel sitting at the table, head titled back, surrounded by a golden light).

Golden light trumped gun, so Dean tucked it into the back of his pants before walking forward.

“Cass?”

Slowly, the angel raised his left hand, index finger extended. Dean shifted with a scowl, but waited until the light faded and Castiel’s blue eyes, looking oddly happy, were looking at him.

“Hello, Dean.”

“Good news on Angel Radio for a change?”

“Sort of.” Cass almost smiled. “That was Ezekiel.”

Dean’s body clenched down so hard he almost broke a tooth. Cass sensed it, of course, and shook his head.

“No, the real Ezekiel.”

“You said he was dead.”

“By all accounts, he was. He fell, his wings burned off.” Cass’ eyes only slightly betrayed his memories of that night. “He went into the ocean and didn’t return.”

“Right.”

“But evidently he was only gravely injured and managed to heal himself.” Cass stood up, an unusual sign of his excitement. “He also saw no reason to reveal himself before now, considering the turmoil in Heaven. Had other angels known he was alive, every side would have tried to recruit him.” Cass nodded to himself. “He’s reached out to me, and I believe we are in a position to help him.”

Dean held up his hands. “Now, hold on a moment. Not that I’m not happy you’ve heard from an old friend, but, uh, the last time I heard that name—”

“It’s hardly Ezekiel’s fault Gadreel used him as an alias, Dean.”

“Hey, look, no offense, but when was the last time we heard from your old feathered bunch and it was good news?”

To Dean’s surprise, Castiel’s eyes narrowed. “Ezekiel has fought beside me in many battles and saved my life on several occasions. No angel in Heaven holds him in anything but the highest respect.”

Dean stepped back slightly. “All right, then. What does he want?”

“He wants to return to Heaven.”

“And the reason he can’t just point his tail upward is?”

Cass scowled. “It’s been several weeks now, Dean. When are you going to stop mentioning angel tails every ten minutes?”

“I’m not sure even you are going to live that long, Cass,” Sam said, stepping into the room in a white tee, slippers, and plaid pajama bottoms. Dean looked at the coffee mug in his hand and reached for it. Sam brought it quickly to his lips and blew on it. With a face at the ungrateful bitch, he went to the kitchen, nodding when Cass and Sam followed him and unsurprised when he found Jack in the kitchen eating a bowl of something with milk.

Sam muttered something about teeth. Dean didn’t really tune back in until he was halfway down a cup of coffee.

“Ezekiel wants to return to Heaven to help defend it against Michael,” Cass was saying. “But he’s concerned that Naomi’s only interest is in watching over Heaven’s souls, not in preparing for the battle.”

“Battle?” Sam asked.

“Does Ezekiel think Michael’s taking his army to Heaven?” Jack asked, a drop of milk on his chin.

“Ezekiel’s not talking about Michael.”

_Oh, great_. “Who then?” Dean asked.

“Evidently, there was one group even Michael didn’t want to recruit, and the ghouls have decided to take what Michael didn’t want to give them.”

“Which is?” Sam asked.

“Everything.”


	2. Chapter 2

After a shower and breakfast and several more cups of coffee, Dean met with the others in the war room. Jack was on his laptop, Castiel was reading a book, and Sam was on the phone.

“You’re sure it wasn’t any of them?” Sam, wearing jeans and a plaid shirt now, asked someone on the phone. He nodded as Dean took a chair. “All right. Can you get back to me about Roy?”

Dean looked over Jack’s shoulder. The kid was doing the usual sort of search for odd crimes, particularly missing persons.

Sam hung up. “All right, that makes two of Michael’s vampires who’ve gone missing, and no one’s taking the credit.”

Jack nodded. “We can add that to a missing confirmed Michael werewolf and two witches.”

“OK, so we’re going with the idea that ghouls are eating monsters and gaining their powers,” Dean said. “But if they’ve had that ability all along, why are they only using it now?”

“A ghoul can take on the shape and the memories of what it eats,” Jack recited. “But there’s been nothing in the lore about taking on another monster’s powers.”

“Ezekiel assumes that Michael did experiment on some ghouls before deciding not to include them in his army,” Castiel said. “But it may also be the case that some vampires or werewolves out there began as ghouls, and we were unaware of it before.”

“Why would they keep that sort of power to themselves?” Dean demanded. “This has got to be something new.”

“But why would Michael go to the trouble of making super-ghouls, and then just abandon them?” Sam asked.

“Because he doesn’t care,” Castiel said. “When he realized they weren’t going to serve his purpose, he probably didn’t give them a second thought.”

Whatever answer Dean was going to give was lost as his phone rang.

Frowning at the name on the screen, he put the phone to his ear.

“Kate?”

“_Dean_,” the woman’s voice said. “_There’s a giant guy with wings standing outside my hotel. He told me to call you_.”

***

It took Kate a little under eight hours to drive up from Dallas to the bunker. Those who needed sleep got a few hours while Castiel and Ezekiel discussed battle plans. Dean was throwing lunch together when his phone rang again.

“Somebody wanna let Kate in?” he yelled out.

Sam ended up being the one to lead the Seer into the kitchen. She was dressed less professionally than last time in khakis and a white button-up, but still had the tidy hairdo and sensible shoes.

She smiled at him a little sadly. “The weeks have not been easy on either of you, I see,” she said.

“Not with Michael still out there, no. Coffee?” He gestured to the pot.

“Thanks.” She poured a cup while Jack walked in, then looked at him with wider eyes.

“You’ve died,” she said.

“Yes.”

She seemed to be peering at his chest. “And there’s something else.”

“We had to use strong magic to retrieve him from Heaven,” Castiel said as he entered.

Kate’s I’m-staring-at-an-angel smile blossomed over her face. “You haven’t changed a bit, I see.”

Dean picked up a large plate of pancakes while everyone else picked up whatever was closest to take over to the table. Then he waited until everyone but Cass had food in their belly to ask their visitor, “So, what does Ezekiel want with you?”

She shrugged and wiped syrup off her chin with a paper towel. “I have no idea. He just said to get here ASAP.”

“Ezekiel wishes to use your abilities in our attack,” Cass said.

Kate shrugged. “Happy to—”

“Hang on a second there, Kate,” Dean warned. “I don’t think he means that the way you’re taking it.” He shot Cass a flushed glare. “Is that how you’re going to get her to say yes? Just not explain it enough?”

Castiel looked equally irritated. “I plan to explain everything to her, Dean.”

The hunter waved him off and turned back to Kate. “Ezekiel doesn’t want your help; he wants your body.”

Kate blinked at him. “Pardon?”

“Angels can only use us as meat suits if we agree,” Sam explained.

“Oh, you mean being a vessel?”

“Yeah.” Dean shot Cass another look. “And once they’re inside, you’re completely powerless if they decide to take the wheel.”

Kate frowned at him, then looked back as Cass, her smile returning faintly. “He wants to use my eyes, I suppose?”

Castiel frowned. “An angel can see through a regular ghoul’s disguise, but we have no idea whether we can with one of Michael’s ghouls.”

Kate looked around at all of them, brows down.

“What’s a ghoul?”

After a bit of reassembly, Dean ended up in the war rom with Kate, explaining things from the beginning, while the others researched the lore in the library for any variants of ghouls.

“So they’re like skinwalkers, but they eat the dead?”

Dean shrugged. “Plus whatever else Michael’s done to them. Also, we’ve encountered some that eat the living as well.”

“Fabulous.” Kate’s eyes looked over at Castiel and smiled. “But this Ezekiel’s a friend of Castiel’s, yes?”

“Yeah, but,” Dean trailed off and then dropped his voice. “Don’t let your feelings for Cass get the better of you, OK? What they’re asking you to do is dangerous.”

She frowned at him. “What do you mean, ‘feelings for Cass’?”

Dean got his mouth open when Kate’s eyes went wide. Leaning forward, she whispered, “Are you suggesting I’m, you know, _into_ Castiel?”

“Well . . .”

“Ew!” Realizing she’d been loud, Kate leaned forward again with a vaguely horrified expression and hissed, “He’s basically incorporeal and the size of a skyscraper. How, exactly, do you think I would manage it?”

Dean was very much regretting this conversation. He shrugged again and thought about offering her a beer, but instead he said, “He’s in human form now.”

“Eeeew,” she said, face thoroughly disgusted. “In Jimmy Novak’s remade body? That’d be like sexing up Kermit with Jim Henson’s hand still up his ass!”

Dean became aware that Sam, Jack, and the angel in question were staring at them.

“Who wants beer?” he didn’t quite shout as he stood up.

“When is Ezekiel getting here?” Kate asked at almost the same time, standing up as well.

“He’s here now,” Castiel said, still sitting and surrounded by books. “As much as he can be.”

“What’s he waiting for then?”

“He thought you would like more information before he spoke to you again.”

“Well, I’m informationed-up.” She nodded to the doorway. “All right if I go into the guest bedroom?”

“Sure,” Sam said, still looking like he wasn’t sure just what he’d just heard.

Kate nodded and walked out. A beat later, Sam stood up and went into the kitchen. Cass and Jack made eye contact, then went back to their studies.

Dean listened to Sam walk in and couldn’t quite make himself close the ‘fridge and turn around.

“What was that about?” his little brother asked.

Dean noted they needed to buy more beer and maybe some bread and cheese. And maybe a rope so he could go hang himself.

“Dean?”

The hunter who would much rather be facing a vampire nest right now turned and looked Sam pretty much in the eye.

“I just asked a question she didn’t like.”

“And it was about Cass and sex?” Sam didn’t actually fold his arms and look down his nose, but he might as well.

“I just thought her little crush on Cass was maybe blinding her to the real problems here.”

“Kate doesn’t have a crush on Cass.”

Dean spread his hands. “She stares at him like he’s a rock star.”

“No, she stares at him like he’s the Mona Lisa or the Sistine Chapel.”

“Well, I still don’t want her doing this blind.”

“She’s a Seer, Dean. I’m pretty sure she’s clear on what’s involved.”

Dean finally slammed the ‘fridge door shut, peripherally aware of the two beers in his right hand. “She’s doing the same damn thing we’ve watched suckers do over and over again! She’s thinking, ‘Oh, it’s angels. They’re nice. I’ll do whatever they want.’ But you and I and Cass and Jack, we all know that’s BS. Those sons of bitches use up their vessels like we’re socks.”

Sam shook his head. “Dean, listen to yourself. You’re not talking about Kate and Ezekiel. You’re talking about you and Michael.”

Dean exploded, “I’m talking about you and the first time someone named Ezekiel came around and promised he’d fix you up! And he lied, Sam; he lied!”

“And he made you a liar,” Sam said quietly.

“Yes! Damnit!”

Dean stood there in the bunker’s kitchen two cold, unopened beers in his hand, and wanted to wield a sword of fire. Years of rage and betrayal burned through him, and then out, leaving him empty.

In the end, he really was just standing there with nothing to fight.

Sam looked at him. “Dean, I forgave you for Gadreel a couple lifetimes ago. And if you hadn’t teamed up with him, I’d be dead. Cass vouches for this Ezekiel guy. I say we give him a chance.”

“That’s good to hear,” Kate said from the doorway. But when they both turned to see her, her frame was being held stiffly and her eyes burned bright blue.

“Ezekiel?” Dean asked.

“Yes, we are here,” Kate/Ezekiel said.

“So, she said yes,” Dean said with a slight sneer.

Ezekiel frowned. It looked nothing like one of Kate’s frowns. “I explained the battle before us and the advantage she would provide as a vessel. She agreed to help us.”

“And when the battle is over?”

The angel shrugged. “I will leave her body and go to Heaven, where I hope to be of use.”

“How about you let Kate tell us that?” Dean asked as Cass and Jack came into the kitchen for evidently the sole purpose of scowling at him.

Ezekiel shrugged slightly, then softened, as though the body being inhabited were more familiar. “It’s fine, OK? Seriously, stop treating me like an idiot or a cult member.” Her brown eyes rolled slightly, then burned blue again.

“We need to go to Mesquite, Nevada,” Ezekiel said.

“Is that their current location?” Castiel asked.

“No, but that’s where they’re going.” Ezekiel looked at each of them in turn, then down at his hands, which he flexed.

“You can see that because of Kate?” Sam asked.

“No, I heard one of the ghouls we are after tell the others it’s the rendezvous point.”

Dean found himself standing in front of the angel inside what he considered a friend.

“The second this is over, you’re going to vamoose out of there, right? This is a one-battle engagement.”

Ezekiel almost looked offended. “Kate and I have an extremely specific understanding.”

“And that understanding means you’re bugging out as soon as we’re done here.”

The angel inhabiting the tidy brunette hairdo and brown shoes shrugged. “Of course, if we survive.”

“Cass!” Dean called.

But it was Ezekiel who answered him, looking Dean squarely in the eyes.

“If Michael’s discarded ghouls take on all the strengths of his other creations, Michael himself couldn’t stop them.”

On the fifteen-hour drive to Mesquite, Nevada (because yes, he did let both Sam and Cass take the wheel for a while, though Ezekiel could just shut his trap), Dean learned the city had a population of around 18,000, had been settled by Mormons, and was actually hotter in the summer than Vegas.

The worst part of the trip, however, was listening to Cass and Ezekiel discuss battle strategies in shorthand.

“It reminds me of the assault on the Y’dred,” Ezekiel said at one point.

“Yes, but they had backup with the wraith-farmers,” Cass answered. “We knew actually crossing into their territory meant only the mortals would die.”

“Yes, but here we have to worry about unknowns, so backup seems superfluous.”

“A second wave is usually desirable, though you’re correct that communication may become difficult.”

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.”

“Thank you, Sun Tzu,” Dean said, recognizing a nugget from _The Art of War_. “Look, it’s simple, right? We have no idea until Kate’s eyes tell us what we’re fighting, so all this is just meaningless.”

“Considering strategy is never a waste, Dean,” Castiel grumbled from the backseat.

“It reminds me of the assault we made on Raphael’s trench,” Ezekiel said. “We will need to be careful about our front.”

Dean ground his teeth.

They made it to Mesquite around 1 in the morning. Ezekiel had them drive around the streets, some of which were quite active with nightlife and some absolutely dead. Despite having Kate’s super-peepers, however, he found no trace of anything.

Dean checked them all into a one-star with the lowest rate in town, the Virgin River Hotel and Casino, where he and Sam spent a couple hours pretending they didn’t know each other, playing blackjack, and talking to the somewhat drunk and surly locals.

Needing a change, Dean followed the sound of cheering and laughter and found a table with two empty seats. Dean settled into third base. Sam followed casually a few minutes later and took shortstop.

It didn’t take long to see the wallet of the party was the guy in a mid-priced suit sitting at first base. He was definitely on a winning streak, but he was betting somewhat conservatively. Dean matched him to get the conversation started, whereas Sam purposefully botched a hand to show everyone what a laid-back guy he was.

Pretty soon, the suit, Orson Whells (“Not spelled the same, yeah?”), who was in real estate, was telling them all about the reason for his bonhomie.

“Sold a white elephant today thought I’d never get rid of,” he said, signaling one of the circling drink trays to order another Bloody Mary for himself and another Cosmo for the non-bottled blonde on his arm, who turned out to be an actual girlfriend, not a prize for the night.

“Americans tends to mess up my first name,” she said with a friendly smile and decidedly Scandinavian accent after Dean asked. “Just call me Gili.”

Orson made a strange noise that Dean realized was meant to be her full name only after the lady patted him on the shoulder and said sweetly, “That was a very good try, darling.”

The dealer made it through another hand. Orson and Dean won; the rest of the table went bust before the dealer turned over the hole card and went bust herself. Then she ran the cards through the machine to refill the shoe.

“Tell me more about the white elephant,” Dean said.

“Huge place up on the hill, built by someone with more ego than sense. Barely got the place finished two years ago before his wife and kids left him and took her money with her. He actually tried to burn the place down for the insurance. Can you believe it? The place is made of stone. All he did was toast his sofa and end up in jail.”

“So, the bank took the place?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, and I thought the boss was nuts for scooping it up at auction. When he passed it off to me, I basically threw the file in a drawer, right? Who the hell wants a ten-bedroom Pueblo Revival with a mile-long driveway? So, two days ago, this lady comes into town with a handbag that costs more than my car. She’s seen the listing on the internet. I take her up, she looks around, buys the damn thing with cash!”

“He came home and proposed,” Gili said with a fond smile. “I told him to take a couple weeks to cool off and just buy me something sparkly in the meantime.”

“Wise woman,” Dean said, smiling despite himself as Orson nodded with a sideways glance that made it clear he’d been serious but was willing to wait.

The dealer got Gili to cut the cards and laid out another hand.

Around 5 a.m. and with more chips than they started with, Orson and Gili wished the rest of the table (meaning just Dean and Sam at that point) a pleasant rest-of-the-night and left. Sam and Dean made their way back to their room (with the angels and Jack in the other).

“So, these ghouls are headed uptown,” Dean said, flopping on the bed with his shoes still on.

“When you’re tired of the old graveyards and damp caves, why not go Pueblo Revival?”

“Cass,” Dean prayed in his pillow. “Wake us at 8, OK?”

Sam snorted and fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

As it happened, Sam and Dean were both awake when the knock on their door came at precisely 8 a.m. Dean had made some coffee with the crap “coffee machine” in the room, and Sam had taken a shower.

The angel at the door, however, was Ezekiel.

“Curious,” the angel said with sharp brown eyes as Kate’s body stepped inside. “You’re using the last remaining seraph of Heaven as an alarm clock.”

“And you’ve slipped inside one of the world’s last Seers to track down ghouls who will probably kill her,” Dean said as he closed the door.

“I have sworn to protect Kate O’Neill with my life.”

“And Cass is part of our family.”

Ezekiel looked over at Sam, looming quietly beside his brother, then narrow his eyes at Dean. “Have you ever even considered that you traded a worldly apocalypse for the devastation of Heaven?”

“Cass made his own choices.”

“_Castiel_ forgot that angels are made to serve, and all of Heaven may fall because of it.” Thin blue lines of light danced over Ezekiel’s eyes.

Dean shook his bowed head. “I can’t believe you.” He looked up at the angel in open scorn. “Sure, Cass tried to lead you all and screwed up. We all know that. But you guys just kept killing each other, didn’t you? How many petty little fights are we talking here? Cass doesn’t talk about it, but we’ve seen it in how he talks, the loss of his angel powers. Without the archangels to keep you all in check, what did you do? Turn on each other! That’s not on Cass.”

“No, it’s on you.” Ezekiel snarled. “You and your brother and that abomination you call a son: you’re a disease, a pestilence on angelkind. Castiel should have let you rot in hell.”

Though he drew in a breath of pure rage, the retort on Dean’s lips was never freed. Ezekiel’s face contorted almost comically, then went smooth, then screwed up again.

Dean looked back at Sam, who shrugged.

After the expression-war was over, it was Kate who spoke to them, her voice low with anger: “I’ve asked Ezekiel to shove it up his ass.” She held up a hand. “I’m still in for the battle, but Castiel isn’t a wind-up soldier, and neither is Zeke.” She snorted with pure irritation, shaking her head. “Seriously, this guy is such a stick-in-the-mud.”

Another knock got Dean opening the door to Jack and Cass. Looking back at Kate’s body, he wasn’t surprised that Ezekiel was at the wheel again.

“Three minivans have been rented for the next few days,” Jack said as they stepped inside. “They’re to pick up a party of eight at the Mesquite Airport at 2 p.m.”

“We need to confront them at once with the highest element of surprise,” Ezekiel said. “We should wait for them at the Pueblo Revival.”

“How do you know about that already?” Sam asked.

“We were standing near you at the blackjack table,” Castiel said.

“Mr. Whells was obviously talking about a residence sold to the ghoul representative,” Ezekiel said.

“A little creepy, Cass,” Dean said.

“Perhaps he should have asked your permission before doing basic reconnaissance?” the angel inside Kate suggested with a sneer.

Cass shot Ezekiel a narrow look but didn’t miss a beat. “We need to hold back until the others come.”

“Going up to the house should allow us to determine if their leader can sense us,” Ezekiel said.

“Unless she simply doesn’t react, in which case we have no idea if we’ve tipped out hand or not.” Castiel frowned. “We have too may unknowns here.”

“Eight of them are going to be in the rented cars for, what, ninety minutes?” Sam asked.

Jack nodded.

“So, how hard would it be for you and Ezekiel to share the ride?”

Castiel considered it. “Not difficult, as long as we get to the airport in time.” He cocked his head slightly to the left. “It leaves us enough time for breakfast.”

“What does that matter?” Ezekiel asked, scowling.

“If you have to ask, you can stand outside in the parking,” Dean said, shoving his wallet in his pocket and then his gun into the back of his pants. “On second thought, no. Kate needs food. I don’t care what you angels say.”

Not longer after, they sat around one of the largest tables in the place, Ezekiel frowning at them as he consumed eggs and toast. Castiel sat in front of a Belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream as Jack plowed through a breakfast skillet, Sam stabbed into an egg whites veggie omelet, and Dean made quick work of chicken friend steak and eggs with a side of bacon.

“You’re not going to eat that,” Ezekiel said to Castiel.

“No, but someone else will, and in the meantime I am avoiding attention.”

Ezekiel went back to frowning, then his eyes—looking very much then like Kate’s eyes—went wide.

“A ghoul has entered,” he said.

By turns, everyone looked at the extremely well-dressed woman who entered the diner with a handbag even Dean could tell cost a fortune. She was almost six feet tall in glittering flats and sharply pleated pants. Her mahogany hair and makeup reminded Dean slightly of Rowena, but whereas the witch was flirtation and fun, this woman was chic and superior.

Interestingly, she bought nothing, conferring with the tired-looking man behind the register.

“He’s assuring her that her order will be ready,” Castiel said. “She’s telling him it better be.”

Dean was going to ask what the order was, but the woman turned on her heel and marched out without another word.

“I couldn’t see that she was a ghoul,” Castiel said, “just that there was something off about her.”

“Then acquisition of this vessel was fortunate,” Ezekiel said.

“Temporary acquisition,” Dean growled, then scowled at Cass when no one responded.

But it turned out everyone else was looking at Ezekiel, who’d gone as blank-faced as a portrait on money.

Dean finished his bacon and thought about just pulling the plug on the whole mess.

“I really wish this didn’t bother you so much,” Kate said, obviously herself.

He looked up to see a face full of sympathy and suddenly felt like a bitch. “I just, it’s difficult for me to see you risk so much.”

She shrugged. “It’s mine to risk, and Ezekiel is right. He’s shown me what a normal ghoul looks like, and she isn’t one.”

“Can you see anything else?” Sam asked.

“She’s got grace in her, but it’s been twisted. It’s black and maggoty.” She looked down at their food then quickly up at the ceiling, breathing in that “I will not hurl” way. “She’s got those marks that mean dying, but they’re inside her, especially the biggest one, which I think means it’s her first death. I’m not sure what that she’s doing, except she’s going to be really hard to kill. I mean, chopping off her head with a regular blade won’t do it.”

“Was there anything about her that reminded you of a vampire?” Cass asked.

Her brows shot up. “Yes, actually. Quite a bit.”

Cass nodded. “She has elements of a nachzehrer.”

“The ghoul-pire?” Dean asked with a little swagger.

“Yes.”

“So we’re talking about a shape-shifting, flesh-eating monster that can only be stopped by putting copper in its mouth and then chopping off its head?”

“I do not believe decapitation is the key,” Ezekiel said, and Dean didn’t know how be knew it was the angel talking, but he was sure of it. “But a combination of copper and decapitation by our angel blades should be enough.”

“Dean and I have a few of those in the car,” Sam said.

Ezekiel frowned at him. “I have my blade, and Castiel has his.”

“Hey, hold on there. You’re not planning to go in there with just you and Cass.”

“I am.”

Dean only got his mouth open before Castiel was talking. “I believe it would be a tactical error to take on these creatures without Sam, Dean, and Jack’s help.”

Ezekiel shrugged. “As you wish. My only promise was to keep Kate O’Neill safe.”

It occurred to Dean that when this was all over, he might owe Kate an apology for punching Ezekiel in the face.

When the three minivans pulled up to expel eight Ezekiel-confirmed super-nachzehrers (six male, two female), it was Jack who first commented on how friendly everyone seemed. The humans couldn’t hear anything from their vantage point crouched behind a distant hedge, but the angels confirmed everyone seemed genuinely pleased to be with each other as they shook hands, standing at the top of the long, semi-circular driveway. It looked vaguely like a rich people’s family reunion, with the lush, manicured front lawn and bright, unstained red brick.

Handbag-woman soon came out to meet them, passing through the house’s towering front door, and their demeanor changed instantly. She ordered them inside and then drilled them on whether they’d been followed, how much money they’d spent, and if they’d told anyone about their change in status

“If we kill her,” Sam asked, “will the others revert, like last time?”

“Michael probably made himself their leader,” Dean said. “But maybe if we—”

“It’s time,” Ezekiel said as the front door closed behind them. He stood.

“What the hell?” Dean said.

“We will attack through the front. You should stay out here and make sure they do not escape us.”

“Cass.”

Castiel put a hand on his fellow angel’s shoulder. “Ezekiel—”

“Another car is coming!” Jack said.

Both angels crouched back down, saving Dean from having to tackle Ezekiel perhaps more roughly than would have been called for.

“Oh, no,” Cass groaned softly. The tidy silver BMW that pulled up the drive soon produced none other than Orson and Gili, the latter holding a bushy potted fern in her hands.

“Food for the meeting and getting rid of witnesses,” Dean said, standing up himself this time. “Hey!” he shouted and waved his arms.

“Dean?” Sam asked, standing himself.

“I know how this goes, Sam! They go in there, we’re all trapped, and it all goes to hell.” He looked at the still-oblivious couple as they walked toward the opening front door and then ran toward them, waving his left arm as his right got out his angel blade. “Get away! Gas leak! Dangerous!”

“FBI!” Sam shouted out of habit, following a step behind and similarly armed.

Orson and Gili turned now, not understanding but at least no longer moving toward their certain deaths, until a mob of were-pires/nachzehrers emerged from the fully opened front door. Dean opened his mouth to shout when he was almost knocked over forward by a force of wind behind him coming from the lighting-like figures zooming past him on either side.

The nachzehrer who had driven the front vehicle was scurrying over to Orson and Gily when Ezekiel reached him, took a flying leap, and kicked it in the head strongly enough to snap it clean around, obviously breaking its neck. It continued to run, but without being able to see where it was going, it slammed into the couple’s BMW and went sprawling.

Castiel had already engaged another nachzehrer when Dean looked over. Just as he realized it and the other nachzehrers were armed with angel blades—just how many of the damned things were out there?—Cass was batting its blade aside to stab it through the heart. It sneered at him, and Cass used the moment to shove something (Dean assumed it was one of the copper pieces they’d armed themselves with earlier) into its maw and then twirled back around, chopping through its neck on its undefended side.

Zeke blocked another nachzehrer as it reached for Gily, who promptly threw her fern at it with a shriek and ducked behind the car with Orson. Zeke reached out, grabbed the nachzehrer’s arm, and pulled it out of its socket. As bright blood squirted across the driveway with violent, perfect geometry, the angel in Kate’s body threw the one-armed body to the ground, shoved a hand to its mouth, and ripped its head off.

Castiel, Dean saw next, was taking on two creatures at once, blinding one with a light from his hand while he stabbed another through its open mouth. Zeke tossed the angel blade his headless nachzehrer had been using and threw it at Cass’ back. Dean shouted an unheard warning as Cass arched back, neatly dodging the twirling blade that went through the neck of the well-dressed female nachzehrer as she was emerging from the house.

The light in Cass’ left hand went out a split-second before that same hand was tossing a copper coin in the still-gaping mouth of his opponent. Zeke ran toward him, and Cass bent back over the other way so Zeke could use his back to jump off, land, roll, and then stand up directly in front of the well-dressed nachzehrer, shove his hand to its mouth, and finish the job slicing off its head. As they feared, this did nothing to stop the others.

Cass had already turned to a new creature, but even as Dean watched, still trying to figure out how he could help, it jumped on Cass’ back, trying to jam an angel blade into the angel’s ear and only thwarted when Cass threw up an elbow, grabbed the creature’s hand where it held the blade, and then threw his arm straight, forcing the nachzehrer to twist around until its own blade was through its ribs. As it screamed in pain, Zeke tossed a coin in its mouth without turning to look, and soon Cass had its head on the ground.

Two were-pires came at Zeke and Cass now, as they stood back-to-back. Cass fell backward, grabbed Zeke’s hand like he was doing some ice-skating move, and spun around with a furl of his coat to chop cleanly through the beast’s legs, toppling its trunk even as the feet and calves remained standing on the blood-soaked bricks.

Zeke used the momentum to cut another creature from its collar bone through its rib cage, ignoring the spout of blood and viscera to reach back in and pull a still-beating heart from the opened torso, which he flung in the face of an advancing nachzehrer, blinding it, even as Cass reached into the same torso and retrieved something—Dean later assumed it was something copper—from its esophagus to shove down the throat of a final nachzehrer, whose head he then separated from its neck.

The two angels kept their feet firm on the slippery brick as they looked around to count: nine were-pire bodies, nine were-pire heads.

In the quiet, Dean could hear blood dripping from the foliage into the pool covering the driveway bricks.

“What the fuck?!” Orson wailed as Gily nodded frantically from her spot in his arms.

“Let me explain,” Zeke said quietly, walking over to tap them both on the forehead and then make sure they fell gently to the ground.

Dean realized he and Sam were standing there with their weapons raised about the same moment Sam realized it. Without a word, they put their weapons away and approached, Jack following quietly behind. Dean realized that was doubtlessly the bloodiest battle the kid had yet seen, even with his time in Apocalypse World.

“Is that it?” Sam asked.

“There are no more nachzehrers here,” Cass said, looking down past his blood-soaked trench coat, suit, and shoes. “We should burn the bodies to be sure.”

“Well fought, brother,” Ezekiel said, walking up to stand before his fellow angel. With a nod, they clapped their blades together, and the metal rang with the force of broadswords.

“Well fought,” Cass agreed.

“Yeah, impressive,” Dean said, feeling he had to step in and not really understanding why. “You guys look like you’ve done that before.”

“I have been proud to fight with Castiel in many battles,” Ezekiel said. Then he frowned down at Kate’s body. In a moment, both angels were clean of blood, and then Ezekiel/Kate began to glow faintly.

“All right, you’re done,” Dean said. “Get out of there.”

“Her body has been much abused by the fighting,” Ezekiel said. “Several ligaments and tendons have been torn, bones broken. Her left calf muscle has snapped.”

“Cass?”

“He’s just healing her, Dean.” Castiel’s voice was slightly amused, which further irritated him.

“That was some fighting, Cass,” Sam said, distracting them all, which was probably a good thing.

“Yeah,” Jack said faintly, eyes wide.

“Thank you,” Cass said with an almost nostalgic look on his face. “There was a time angels routinely fought united against all manner of Heaven’s enemies.

“Indeed,” Ezekiel said as he stopped glowing. “I have thanked this vessel for her service.”

“Yeah, so scram,” Dean growled.

“I will indeed scram, but I feel there is something I should tell you.” He was looking now at Castiel.

“What?” Dean asked.

Ezekiel shrugged. “She has been nothing with honest with you, but she’s not a Seer.”

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Roarkshop, whose video provided inspiration for the final scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6Vls_A_kKI


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